The way we (continue) to tell the story of America's past: ignorant at best, racist for sure

I recently visited Santa Fe, a small town in northen New Mexico whose economy is heavily tied to the rich Indigenous heritage of the land. This is a community, possibly more than any other in the U.S., which appears to treasure and honor American Indians, their art and culture. From paintings to sculptures, breathtaking beadwork to elaborate silver jewelry, and an array of turquoise art, Santa Fe's shops and galleries collectively form a museum of Indigenous craftsmanship. Of course, the city also profits heavily off of the labor of Native artisans, as most of the pieces in Santa Fe are sold by non-native vendors at incredible mark-up from what was payed to the artist, at prices that the wealthy tourists in the town will pay.

Thus, it is a place where "homage to Native culture" and "exploitation of Native culture" are often hard to tease apart. There was one shop in the town's downtown district that heightened my concern - amidst some of the most beautiful (and expensive) Indigenous jewelry and decorative pottery I have ever seen, on the way out of the shop, I noticed the good ole' "dress up Indian" rack. $5 packages of feathers, headresses, tomahawks, etc. so that little Jimmy and Sally could play dress-up while mommy and daddy "honored" Indigenous artisans by buying a $3,000 necklace.


...I then went to the New Mexico History Museum, in the hallowed Palace of the Governers in the town's main square, and was greeted in the entrance with a plaque that introduces visitors to the history of this land. Interestingly, the prominance of American Indians in the rest of the town's shops was apparently not contagious, as this sign spoke nothing of the Pueblos and Zuni's whose land this was. In fact, the only mention of Indigenous peoples in this plaque was by a curious title - HOSTILE INDIANS. I wondered if this was, perhaps, a Tribe I have never heard of? The Hostile Indian Nation? Here are the three references to the land's first peoples, quoted exactly:

New Mexico, a part of the new nation, was expected to protect Mexico's interior from foreigners and hostile Indians.

HOSTILE INDIANS WERE THE GREATEST THREAT to communities. Disruptive raids caused the abandonment of numerous small frontier settlements.

Attempts to stop hostile Indians so depleted the treasury that it was often impossible to provide arms for the settlers.

I think the sheet ignorance and racism here speaks for itself, but I will comment briefly.

First, this is the third time in the last 6 months where I have seen similarly barbaric and dehumanizing depictions of American Indians in places where I would expect better, the national park of Sabino Canyon and Mt. Ranier being the other two. So, shrugging this off as an incidental finding, as opposed to an indictment of how we continue to tell the story of our land and its history, is a bit difficult.

Second, I can only laugh at this notion that American Indians sole contribution to this land was to stand in the way of the good, Christian Europeans who were trying to make themselves a home. Forget telling the 10,000+ year history of what happened before Europeans graced the land...forget thinking about the "disruptive raids" of the colonizers into Native communities. Instead, we'll focus on the way that the barbaric Indians stood as a hindrance and barrier to European development (with amnesia to the reality of how the annihilation of Indigenous communities might have stood as a slight hindrance to their own development). How can we continue to tell such a fairy tale version of our history and what does this say about our collective conscience as a nation in terms of our ability to accept the dark truths about the founding of this land?

Finally, a question for all of us - When we continue to tell our history this way, where all of the pre-European millenia are tidied into one paragraph called "the prehistoric time," with the next sentence beginning with a description of how peoples of this land stood as a disruption to the proud mission of civilizing the primitive land (a.k.a. colonization and genocide), how can we expect this same society to treat American Indians humanely, with some sense of dignity or humanity?

If a stranger were to come to this land and stand there at the entrance of the New Mexico History Museum reading this plaque, what condition would we she expect to find today's descendents of these "hostile Indians"? In poverty? Treated as less than fully American, less than fully human?Banished to barren lands without proper infrastructure for water, electricity, health care, and jobs? Or, equally devastating, suffering from the same as invisible wanderers in America's cities?

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The way we tell our history says a lot about who we are - until we re-write the story of our nation's past, we surely won't right the wrongs of the present.

In sadness and hope,
Anthony

p.s. not to be hypocritical, I will now begin writing my letter of discontent to the museum and our local papers.

Happy Interdependence Day!

Writing in the last minutes of July 4th - INTERDEPENDENCE Day, 2008.

As the fireworks fade, I think about the greatness of America.

Does it lie in our ability to exert our will over all other nations, or does it lie in being willing to do our small part in bringing nations together to save this planet and put an end to violence and war?

Does America's greatness lie in our ability to occupy, to invade, to devastate other lands...or does it lie in developing an occupation, a fascination with peacemaking.

Does our greatness lie in thinking that we are the critical central piece holding the world together, or does it lie in being humble enough to see that we are just one small piece in the larger puzzle that is the global community.

Celebrate Inter-depedence day...
recognizing the work we have to do in lowering our nation's ego to half-mast (a solemn tribute and "goodbye" to the bull-headed arrogance that led us, for instance, to the delusion that bulldozing our way through foreign lands in the name of national security in order to exponentially increase profits for our impoverished oil tycoons is good foreign policy).

understanding that, like the fireworks of tonight, an existence based on boasting of our superiority will quickly fade away from its initial brilliance, becoming nothing more than smoke in the sky.

believing that love, generosity, kindness, and the principles of equity and justice can be the foundation for our interactions with the world, with soul power replacing military power
as the ticket to national security.

The question is not nonviolence vs. violence. It is nonviolence vs. nonexistence.

Happy Interdependence Day!!!!!